Transcript

00:00:02

>> Reuters exclusively reporting on Monday that an oil refinery owned by billionaire Carl Icahn, a former adviser and longtime ally to President Trump, was granted a financial hardship waver by the EPA, exempting his refinery from tens of millions of dollars in costs related to a federal biofuels regulation.

00:00:23

That's according to two industry sources who were briefed on the matter, Reuters energy editor David Gaffen.>> Some refineries every year have asked for what is known as a hardship exemption. And these are generally reserved for very small refineries. So what they're able to say is essentially, we can't afford this.

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Our refinery is so small that it would just cut into our profits and hurt us completely. And they can or cannot be granted the exemption. Up until last year basically, you get five or eight refineries every year, they would get it. This year has changed. Under Scott Pruitt's EPA, you got about 25 or so that are getting these exemptions.

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One of them is Carl Icahn's refinery in Oklahoma. So for Carl Icahn, who is a billionaire and owns this refinery, to gain an exemption for his refinery smacks of not going with exactly the spirit of the law to begin with. And then ties together in a way that sort of smacks of self dealing and profiting off of a relationship with the President.

00:01:24

>> Both the EPA and Icahn did not respond to requests for comment. The waiver brings further scrutiny on Icahn who was already under investigation by the Justice Department, for his role in influencing biofuels policy, while serving as Trump's advisor early in the adminstration.>> He had really no other role as a regulatory advisor other than to talk about and to try to do something about biofuels, which again affects him personally, because he owns a refinery.

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>> Icahn stepped down from his position as special regulatory advisor to Trump last August, after lawmakers cited potential ethical problems in his dual role as an advisor and a businessman.